A great number of pharmaceutically active ingredients are known in the art which inhibit the growth of tumor-cells, respectively kill tumor-cells or leukaemia cells. Usually, however, said active ingredients also inhibit to a certain extent the growth of the healthy cells, however the inhibition of the growth of the healthy cells is far lower than the inhibition of the growth of the cancer cells.
The aim of the present invention was to find a pharmaceutically active ingredient which inhibits the growth of the tumor-cells and stimulates at the same time the metabolism of the normal healthy cells.
It was now quite unexpectedly found out that pollen extracts which were recovered from plant pollen by an extraction with an aqueous extraction medium, have the desired property of inhibiting the growth of tumor-cells, or even killing leukaemia cells, while said pollen extract at the same time stimulates the metabolism of normal healthy cells.